Transgender

Re "Early help on a hard path," Column One, June 15 As a school psychologist with the Los Angeles Unified School District for nearly 30 years, I saw a number of children with early signs of having a transgender identity. Some boys, when asked to draw a person, would scrawl a girl in ruffles and jewelry. When asked their three wishes, invariably they would be creatively atypical. They also preferred to play with the opposite sex and often begged to stay in the classroom during recess because of the cruelty out on the playground.

Police say they have not yet decided whether to recommend filing charges against a Northern California transgender teen who made up a story about being sexually assaulted and beaten in a school bathroom. The 15-year-old recanted his claim about the alleged Monday attack after investigators informed him there was little to no evidence to back it up, said Det. Connie Van Putten of the Hercules Police Department. “We were unable to substantiate any of the statements he made,” Van Putten said, adding police did not find any injuries to the boy that would have corroborated the attack and that a sexual assault examination had been performed.

Sarah, once my daughter, is now Finn, a member of the transgender community. Those are hard words to write. I want to love the man my daughter has become, but floundering in the torrent of her change and my resistance to it, I fear I'll never make it across my river of anger and sorrow. I think about Sarah growing up, how she always acted with courage and fortitude. In junior high she studied Russian because it was "a challenge. " In high school she proved she wasn't too small to play water polo goalie.

Police in the small Northern California city of Hercules have launched a sexual assault and hate crime investigation after a transgender student was allegedly attacked by three teenage boys while using a bathroom that matches his gender identity. The 15-year-old Hercules Middle-High School student, who is female but identifies as male, said that as he was exiting the boys bathroom Monday morning he was confronted by "three unidentified male juveniles," according to a news release from the Hercules Police Department.

Re "In the running, as herself," Sept. 19 Transgender teen Cassidy Lynn Campbell would get my vote for homecoming queen at Marina High School. Not only is she beautiful, she is smart, brave and true to herself. Kudos to Marina High and her parents for allowing her to be who she is. Marsha Pasarow Schiff Los Angeles ALSO: Mailbag: Fight over food stamps Letters: Obamacare and public opinion Letters: Back-and-forth on Syria policy

SACRAMENTO -- Conservatives are gearing up to fight a new law requiring schools to let transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity instead of their physical sex. Two activists, with the support of a conservative legal group called the Pacific Justice Institute, began Friday the process for overturning the measure at the ballot box. They have just under 90 days to collect 504,760 signatures to...

SALT LAKE CITY - Two embarrassed Utah lawmakers were apologetic after a spontaneous Twitter exchange that made light of changing genders instantly went viral on social media. Among those seizing upon the exchange was an LGBT activist who decided to turn an insult into an opportunity for education. Brandie Balken, the executive director of Equality Utah, a nonprofit group advocating on behalf of gay and transgender residents in this conservative state, arranged for an impromptu meeting of legislative staffers at the state house Monday night to discuss transgender issues.

Police in the small Northern California city of Hercules have launched a sexual assault and hate crime investigation after a transgender student was allegedly attacked by three teenage boys while using a bathroom that matches his gender identity. The 15-year-old Hercules Middle-High School student, who is female but identifies as male, said that as he was exiting the boys bathroom Monday morning he was confronted by "three unidentified male juveniles," according to a news release from the Hercules Police Department.

The last that Cassidy Vickers' street friends saw of him was about 10 p.m. on Nov. 17, 2011, outside the Donut Time shop on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. He was waving and saying he'd be back in a bit. A transgender prostitute whose legal name was Nathan, Cassidy had come down from the San Francisco Bay Area to work the Hollywood streets. That night, on Lexington Avenue, 10 blocks from the doughnut shop, Vickers was shot to death by a man on a bike. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier online version of this article contained a typographical error inserted during initial editing of the text, referring to Cassidy Vickers as "heshe.

The Arcadia Unified School District and the U.S. Department of Education have reached an agreement to end an investigation into allegations of discrimination against a transgender student, officials said Wednesday. The resolution, which the Arcadia school board passed unanimously Tuesday, closes an investigation by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights into whether the district prohibited a student, who was born female but identifies as a male, from accessing boys restrooms and locker rooms because he is transgender.

Northern California police said Tuesday a transgender teenager who claimed he was beaten and sexually assaulted by three boys in a school bathroom has recanted his story. The 15-year-old transgender boy admitted he made a false report about an alleged Monday attack after investigators told him there was no evidence to back up his story, said Hercules Police Detective Connie Van Putten. “We were unable to substantiate any of the statements he made,” Van Putten said. Police found no injuries to the boy's head, face or hands to corroborate an attack, Van Putten said.

SACRAMENTO -- A measure to block California's transgender students rights law failed to qualify for the November ballot Monday, according to the secretary of state's office. The referendum would have repealed a law passed last year that requires school districts to let transgender students participate in school programs and use school facilities, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, based on their gender identity instead of their biological sex. The measure was backed by a coalition called Privacy for All Students.

Chelsea McInturff and Samantha Curley were eager for a public conversation about film, gay sexuality and Christian life, but they weren't sure whether it was the right time - or the right place. They stood nervously inside an auditorium at Pasadena's evangelical Fuller Theological Seminary last spring, worried the drama they were about to screen - - about a teen coming out as lesbian - would end up offending an audience of students and professors who didn't necessarily approve of its story line.

A senior at Azusa High School will be the first transgender student to play on the girls' varsity softball team, school officials said Friday. Patrick Cordova-Goff, 17, who goes by Pat, is a member of the cheer squad and student body president. She could also be the state's first transgender student to play softball at a high school. Pat, who played baseball in her freshman year, began trying out for the softball team two weeks ago, said Azusa Unified School District Supt. Linda Kaminski. The transgender teen learned she made the softball team when high school officials posted tryout results Thursday, Kaminski said.

An Azusa High School senior could become one of the first transgender students to play for the softball team, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported . Patrick Cordova-Goff recently tried out for the softball team and is awaiting word for a final decision. Cordova-Goff is founder and president of Azusa's Gay-Straight Alliance. According to a new CIF rule, "All students should have the opportunity to participate in CIF activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student's records.

“The media's insatiable appetite for transsexual women's bodies contributes to the systematic othering of trans women as modern-day freak shows, portrayals that validate and feed society's dismissal and dehumanization of trans women.” - Janet Mock, in her new memoir “Redefining Realness” Well, Piers Morgan stepped right into that one. This week, the CNN host caused a stir for what some say was his insensitive handling of an...

Northern California police said Tuesday a transgender teenager who claimed he was beaten and sexually assaulted by three boys in a school bathroom has recanted his story. The 15-year-old transgender boy admitted he made a false report about an alleged Monday attack after investigators told him there was no evidence to back up his story, said Hercules Police Detective Connie Van Putten. “We were unable to substantiate any of the statements he made,” Van Putten said. Police found no injuries to the boy's head, face or hands to corroborate an attack, Van Putten said.

SALT LAKE CITY - Two embarrassed Utah lawmakers were apologetic after a spontaneous Twitter exchange that made light of changing genders instantly went viral on social media. Among those seizing upon the exchange was an LGBT activist who decided to turn an insult into an opportunity for education. Brandie Balken, the executive director of Equality Utah, a nonprofit group advocating on behalf of gay and transgender residents in this conservative state, arranged for an impromptu meeting of legislative staffers at the state house Monday night to discuss transgender issues.

Earlier this month, the sports website Grantland ignited controversy over a story on Essay Anne Vanderbilt, also known as Dr. V, the inventor of a “scientifically superior” golf club dubbed “The Oracle.” In writing the article , titled “Dr. V's Magical Putter,” reporter Caleb Hannan discovered something he didn't expect about his subject: She was a transgender woman. In October, Hannan writes, Dr. V killed herself before his article was even finished. Responding to her suicide within his piece, Hannan wrote: “Writing a eulogy for a person who by all accounts despised you is an odd experience....